even Mother Nature is getting into the Halloween spirit!

I found these most amazing spider webs that are just a work of art on my walk the other day. I am glad that I took pictures when I did as they did disappear all too quickly!

Speaking of spider webs, this was a piece that I stitched for Ruth Schmuff a few years back. I hung a spider from her tail…canvas by Eye Candy.

This spider allowed for a great photo op with AlleyCat… and no for anybody who thinks that I might pose these cats? Not in my wildest dreams.

Tonight starts Red October; St. Louis Cardinals vs the Boston Red Sox World Series. Watching these 2 teams play down the stretch, I am looking forward to some amazing games! First pitch is a little early, hope I can get out of work on time. and until next time…keep on sticthing

I was in La Jolla the other day, as it was breakfast time at The Cottage and a bit of retail therapy was on the agenda…when I noticed that even La Jolla is getting into the Halloween spirit!

This guy moves his head from side to side making his or maybe hers prescence felt! The shops are decorated for Halloween, but all too soon it will wane into Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Some great seasonal stitching would be these characters from Sew Much Fun! These shelf sitters are great little projects and actually I have the Thanksgiving one that I hope to get on bars and start soon…BTW that one is not pictured here.

This is another one of the Halloween Hearts by NeedleDeeva that I stitched and was part of the club by Pocket Full of Stitches. You can call and order them indivdually now!

I was at a loss last night as there was no baseball on…what was I to do? Well the World Series starts Wednesday night and you know where you will find me!

Even Sylvester was getting in the Halloween spirit…literally! and until next time…keep on stitching

p.s. happy birthday to my sister!

With 10 days left before Halloween I am so getting in the mood. I really do love the day, the colors and all things associated with it. BTW, who can pass up a piece of chocolate?

This is a NeedleDeeva canvas that I stitched as part of a Halloween Hearts club for Pocket Full of Stitches. Besides the ones that had cats…well, what were you thinking? This was my absolute favorite one! Ruching or mock bullions created her hair and even though it was sooooooooooooo much fun, it was very time consuming to create her wild and crazy hair. It was really worth the time and effort as I was thrilled with the way it came out.

Even Mother Nature paints in the most amazing color palette! Growing up on the East coast, the fall colors was something that I was used to every year and you just took it for granted. Now that I live on the West Coast, we don’t get color like this, but trust me I will trade in that beautiful changing colors for our weather any day!

A handful of friends have been making trips back East just to tour the colors. Enjoy! As kids, following the color changes was the work of raking up all those leaves. Followed up with the fun of falling into that pile of leaves!

Mooch has the right idea! and I am too busy to spend the day under the covers…but a lazy morning all under the covers with the fur children every so often isn’t a bad idea.

Sylvester is posing for his glamour shot! and until next time…keep on stitching

October is the month of the full Hunter’s Moon, as according to Indian folklore, it was the time to go hunting. This is the first full moon following the Harvest Moon.

It rises around sunset and sets around sunrise, making it the only night that the moon stays in the sky all night long.

Looking at these 3 black cats in front of the moon sort of puts me in the Halloween spirit! It  is time to start making my home more holiday worthy, and I have just begun to scratch the surface.

I am thinking too that I need to start stitching “in the season” as I have been seeing so many amazing Halloween trees loaded with needlepoint ornaments! My 4 candy canes from Melissa Shirley need some company so they can hang out on a tree together.

This pile of threads from last years Halloween stitching is a great start…now I just need a canvas or 2 or 3. well I think that you get the idea! I think that I see a little retail therapy ahead of me.

AlleyCat loves this new box! and until next time…keep on stitching

All these amazing canvases that we have to stitch need those special threads to create that masterpiece that we envision in our minds.

Rainbow Gallery never ceases to amaze me with the amount of new colors that they come out with. Silk Lamé is really one of my favorites!

Can’t find the color in the size that you need? well they do make it for larger mesh, regular and petite. Need even bigger or thinner? double it to increase or you can strand it down to the size that you need and want.

Also there are a few colors of Glow in the Dark Threads and a few more colors of Fyre Werks.

I really do love these needles from EdMar, the maker of bouclé. First of all the container is great for carrying these needles around with you and secondly I do love a gold eye needle. and why you ask? as for me when the gold wears off, I know that it is time to discard it. Our needles are probably our most important tools…

I came across this old picture of Felix and AlleyCat sitting on the keyboard. See she hasn’t changed much? and until next time…keep on stitching

Last I left you on the blog, it was with this canvas. Canvas by Annie Lane, a new, new, new designer that I love, love, love! Isn’t that exciting when we have a new designer? means needlepoint is growing and flourishing!

I see this as a screen door…don’t you? So what else do you create a screen door with?

Black Kreinik! and lots of it…actually it was 4 spools of #4 (even though this shows #8) in a 4-way continental. If I was worried about my eyes not seeing, there really was no need to worry, as I had no problem.

and some more Kreinik as I outlined the light fixture with Kreinik and then stitched the base with 22L Molten Mocha, which is one of their Holographic threads.

The screen door was hours and hours after the 4 spools of Kreinik and then 2 skeins of ThreadworX for the wood around the screen. Then 3-4 more skeins for the wall. I am enjoying stitching on the canvas so much, which has been a collaboration with Susan Portra. It is supposed to be a model for Cindy who represents Annie Lane, but you may not get this canvas back!

Notice the little red stitches in the margin of the canvas? that was to lock in each row and to keep the last stitch as straight as the one next to it. I worked across for each row, to try and spread the colors change out. I am thrilled with it!

Baseball has been amazing these last few days. OMG it doesn’t get much better! All too soon the season will be over, maybe 2 more weeks at the most…but then it will be time to think about Halloween, Thanksgiving, Thankgivukkah (what’s that you ask? well that is a topic for another day?!) Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years and then it will be the January trade show. Wow where did this year go?

ooh the working conditions that I must endure. First AlleyCat decides that she wanted to sit right on my work and then…then if that wasn’t bad enough, she turned her back to me! and until next time…keep on stitching

Saturday was just a purr~fect day! I was on the road by 6:12am…well give or take a minute  or 2, to pick up Brenda Hart so we could start on our day. It is about a 2+hour drive that early on Saturday morning. No traffic and no problems, except that I hit one ramp closure to change freeways. What were they thinking? Don’t they know I was on a mission?

I made it door to door in plenty of time and we started our day out with a great breakfast at Julienne’s in San Marino. Well between shopping and stitching, we need to have lots of energy! As we planned out our morning, we would have about an hour at the bead shop. OMG! I think we are going to be in trouble…big trouble.

This is my beady stash enhancement. This is for a project that I will be starting a little later this year. I need to make some color copies of the canvas first.

I think that you can figure out where all these beads are going! I can’t wait to get started on it either.

The time went by quickly at the bead store and all too soon we were out the door and on the way to A Stitch in Time.

This was the beginning of my stash enhancement. I wanted to get more of these needles from EdMar for a photo shoot and review for the magazine. I love the packaging that they have come up with…but I love these needles even more! There is also a beading needle that I picked up too since I see a lot of beading in my future. EdMar calls it an 11 darning needle, but I have been using the samples that they gave out at the last market and I like them very much.

I needed another thread for my Welcome by Annie Lane. A rather new designer and if you would like to see the rest of their line; Enriched Stitch just happens to have their trunk show right now! On my canvas, the screen door is all stitched, as are the Ugg boots, the light fixture and over the door decoration has been beaded and now I am working on the red wall. I am stitching this for a model for the designer, but this one I might have a very hard time giving it up!

These canvases by Annie Lane are wonderful, as I really like the big expanses of color. It really lends itself to great stitches, fun techniques and so much more. I could easily stitch each and every one of them. Later this week I will show what I have stitched on it so far.

What a great day as we stitched away listening to Vin Scully and the Dodgers/Cardinals game…after all we were in Dodger territory. All too soon it was time to head home and stitch some more.

I guess Sylvester had a tough day. and until next time…keep on stitching

A fun day ahead for me today. A visit to A Stitch in Time for a class with this lady…

Brenda Hart. Now I have been taking with Brenda for 20 something years…but who’s counting? now there is someone who has really taught me a thing or 2 about stitching!

But first breakfast at Julienne’s, then a trip to the San Gabriel Bead Compnay where we will have some serious retail therapy amoung the beads, crystals and bling! So much going on that I might even need a day or 2 off from the blog…

It was a little chilly last night, so some certain person and not mentioning her name, slipped under the covers! and until next time…keep on stitching

It was a cool day in more ways than one! Just a few days ago it was 90 something out and I was hanging out in shorts and enjoying Talenti Sea Salt Gelato with AlleyCat, yes she loves, loves, loves ice cream…did I say love? It just 48 hours, the temperatures dropped drastically, the rain and wind arrived and all of a sudden I am thinking sweats and chicken soup.

The other cool part of the day was I happened to take a little ride up north, just a quick 60 miles or so. Yes it was raining and I would have much rather stayed home and stitched, but I was on a mission!

I was headed to the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel where Aristea was having their annual retreat. I was stopping in to say hi to Susan and to see what magic that they were creating.

I didn’t attend this year’s festivities as I had other commitments that sorta kinda got in the way.

This was the piece that they were stitching, a canvas by Patti Mann. Check out those toes!

and of course there was a little show and tell of some of Susan’s work such as…

this Santa by Brenda Stofft. Susan has been teaching this piece at many shops….check and see if it is being taught at your favorite needlepoint shop. When it is finished, it is then rolled up for that special addition to your holiday decorating.

and this piéce de résistance! I’m in love with this piece…a gingerbread house by Shelly Tribbey.

Notice how Susan works in the well with her stretcher bars? the reason is not to make it easier for ending your threads, but rather it protects your stitching from bumps and bruises. See too how the magnets are not in the stitching area? these are all things that I learn from her everytime I am around her.

Visit was over and it was time to head back home to catch a little playoff baseball.

A little chill time with the cats before I start stitching. and until next time…keep on stitching

So you remember this canvas from the other day? It is called Post People by AGA Designs and Julia’s Needlework’s carries their designs.

Fun, fun, fun canvases for sure!

Tony taught Wendy how to make a wig maker’s half hitch. The real deal in wig making and hairdressing…and Tony used to be a hairdresser, so why not? This was to be his goatee. I didn’t see the beginning of the makings of this half hitch.

Tony is giving him a trim!

The cut continues…

This will be a special canvas for sure when it is finished! I hope to see it when I see Wendy next at A Stitch in Time. BTW that’s Wendy in the pink floral.

I am suffering from CRS at the moment…did I share this picture with you or not? oh well it is Melissa Shirley’s 5 Halloween stitching witches and each teacher selected a witch in their likeness. Meredith is the middle one with the pink! Well if you know Meredith you would know that is her favorite color.

The class was wonderful, amazing and as always I learned so much. I come away inspired and ready to stitch up a storm, which I have been. I think that this was the 4th time I have taken this class and I look forward to the next time, hopefully in Chicago at the ANG Seminar.

I really think that I have used all the pictures that I took…but I will check my phone, but for now, this party is over!

The baseball the last few nights has been wonderful…actually too good and at times I can’t get that much stitching done.

The kids taking an afternoon or was it morning? snooze. and until next time…keep on stitching